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Minting talent: NDRC partnership paves way for embracing disability inclusion at The Perth Mint

Image: (from left to right) Kristen Potter, Group Manager Organisational and Cultural Development; Joshua Ford, Records Assistant; and Nick Foster, General Counsel are standing outside The Perth Mint office and looking at the camera.

With the support of JobAccess and the National Disability Recruitment Coordinator (NDRC), The Perth Mint has not only made its recruitment practices more inclusive, but has also recently employed a person with disability who is making a significant contribution to its records team.

When she started with Gold Corporation (The Perth Mint), Kristen Potter, Group Manager of Organisational and Cultural Development, had already partnered with JobAccess across several previous workplaces and considered them to be a valuable national service.

With a background in disability employment, Kristen had achieved some great results working with the National Disability Recruitment Coordinator (NDRC), including the successful recruitment of candidates with disability.

“When I joined The Perth Mint and began work in the diversity, inclusion and equity space, JobAccess was one of the first organisations I called to establish an NDRC partnership and start to enact positive change in a new workplace with new challenges,” Kristen said recently.

Building disability confidence

Funded by the Australian Government as a program of JobAccess, the NDRC is designed to help larger employers attract, employ, and retain the skills and talents of people with disability.

Employers can partner with the NDRC for 12 months and are assigned a dedicated professional adviser who provides help to increase disability confidence across the organisation as well as tailored strategies for increasing disability employment.

They help companies overcome barriers to employing people with disability by:

Starting the journey at The Perth Mint

Being early in the organisation’s diversity, inclusion and equity journey, Kristen was seeking guidance from subject matter experts on how to improve their practices and culture to ultimately be a more inclusive organisation to work for.

“When The Perth Mint engaged the NDRC, our main objectives were to review our policy frameworks and our recruitment process to ensure they were inclusive and mitigated potential bias,” she says.

Following the recruitment review, the NDRC helped The Perth Mint to introduce the following improvements:

  • Developing accessible job advertisements, with a statement outlining their commitment to inclusion, and ensuring documents were compatible with screen reading software and available in alternative formats
  • The development and implementation of a reasonable adjustment policy
  • Giving applicants multiple options to share information about their disability and request for reasonable adjustments
  • Implementation of interview and recruitment panel member training to ensure processes are standardised and free of unconscious bias, where possible
  • Disability awareness training was also provided to the leadership team to increase general understanding of disability employment and the barriers people with disability may face to equal participation

Inclusive recruitment outcomes

Kristen believes The Perth Mint’s participation in the NDRC program has increased their disability confidence, not only within their HR team, but more broadly across the organisation.

“It was reassuring for our People and Culture team to be able to refer to our NDRC representative for advice and guidance throughout the recruitment review process,” she said.

“They were able to identify areas of opportunity that, as a team, we had not yet considered. As a result, we’ve been able to implement several initiatives that have changed the way we approach the whole employee experience at The Perth Mint. 

“We’re now confident that our recruitment practices are far more inclusive and accessible to potential candidates.

The disability awareness training was well received and contributed to a larger cultural change strategy to drive inclusion across the business, she said

They’re also using the JobAccess vacancy service to share vacancies with a diverse candidate pool, experiencing the strongest success with their DES provider partners.

“The ongoing relationships have meant that the providers have gained an understanding of our business, our culture, and the types of roles and candidates we’re looking for.”

A new team member

Following the support and guidance The Perth Mint received from its 12-month partnership with the NDRC, and with additional support from Down Syndrome WA (DSWA), the company recently appointed Joshua Ford as a Records Assistant.

“Securing open employment has meant Joshua has been able to build confidence and financial independence, whilst developing new skills,” Kristen says.

“While we received specialised support from DSWA, it was the partnership with JobAccess and the NDRC that enabled us to build the foundational skills and culture to be able to successfully attract, appoint and retain this candidate.

“He has proved to be a valued team member who makes significant contributions to the team and our workplace culture.”

An inclusive future

Although they have now completed the partnership, Kristen says the company remains in contact with the NDRC for advice and support and to participate as an Alumni partner.

“The partnership with JobAccess and the NDRC has been a positive experience with great outcomes, and we’re looking forward to continuing our relationship into the future.

“Employee diversity, inclusion, and engagement is now a business-wide priority. We strive to continually improve our representation of people with a disability in our workplace to a level equal to or above those reflective of the community in which we operate.

“This program has complemented our inclusion strategy vision to build a workplace which is inclusive and empowers everyone to be the very best they can.”

The National Disability Recruitment Coordinator (NDRC) provides tailored, one-to-one personalised support to help employers become disability fit.

Contact JobAccess on 1800 464 800 to connect with the NDRC or submit an enquiry.

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